Crowning Elegance

My favorite recipes from this superb cookbook.

It’s hard to come up with original recipes. And we don’t always have to. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel when talented and creative chefs have already done that work for us. So while sometimes I like to play around with recipes and create my own, others I am happy to rely on the work of others, especially if it turns out to be really good! I've made a number of the recipes in the cookbook, Crowning Elegance, put out by the Arie Crown Hebrew Day School of Chicago and I’d like to share with you some of my favorites.

Moroccan Couscous Soup

This soup is a meal in and of itself. It’s perfect on a cold winter’s night. I added some cumin to give it more zip and more Moroccan flavor. I also made a few other alterations according to our family’s preference (i.e. more white meat chicken). Feel free to play around with it a little.

In a large stockpot over medium-high flame, heat oil, add onions and sauté until translucent. Add short ribs and brown. Add chickpeas, zucchini, cabbage, squash, carrots, chicken, broth, cumin, turmeric and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours. Prepare couscous according to package directions. Place a few tablespoons of couscous in each bowl and top with soup. Enjoy (We do!).

Split Pea Soup

Another great dinner. It’s so filling that it doesn’t need anything else alongside.

2 cups dried split peas

1 cup pearl barley (my addition for an even heartier soup)

2 onions, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

2 (8 ounce) packages sliced mushrooms (I’m a big mushroom fan so I added these also; you can also used canned mushrooms if you don’t have any fresh ones handy)

¼ pound sliced corned beef, torn into ¼-inch pieces

12 cups water

½ teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon dried basil (I skipped this but I wanted to give you the option)

In a large stock pot over medium-high flame, combine all the ingredients. Bring to a boil, lower flame and simmer, partially covered, for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Mixed Greens with Portobello Mushrooms and Honey Glazed Almonds

I made this for Yom Tov and it was a hit. I substituted candied pecans for the almonds – just because they were easier to find and we like them better but it’s up to you!

Salad

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 to 4 Portobello mushroom caps, cut into ½-inch pieces

Salt and pepper to taste

6 ounces mixed salad greens, coarsely torn 9about 3 cups)

3 cups fresh baby spinach leaves, stems discarded

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup candied pecans (or honey glazed almonds) Dressing

½ cup canola oil

¼ cup white vinegar

¼ cup ketchup

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon mustard powder (I omitted this)

¼ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon salt

In a large skillet, over medium flame, heat oil. Add mushrooms and cook until meaty and fragrant, about 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

I made this with whole chickens, cut in 1/8th’s one week for Shabbos and I made it the next week with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It works well with either. It’s super easy (my favorite component) and delicious. It’s a peanut butter sauce without the hundreds of ingredients.

About the Author

Emuna Braverman has a law degree from the University of Toronto and a Masters in in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on Marriage and Family Therapy from Pepperdine University. She lives with her husband and nine children in Los Angeles where they both work for Aish HaTorah. When she isn''t writing for the Internet or taking care of her family, Emuna teaches classes on Judaism, organizes gourmet kosher cooking groups and hosts many Shabbos guests. She is the cofounder of www.gourmetkoshercooking.com.

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 5

(5)
Yehudis,
November 18, 2010 5:37 PM

Not Brave Enough

Peanut butter, ketchup and horseradish? Sounds like something kids concoct when they want to make something really gross. I'm sure Mrs. Braverman is serious that this is a delicious chicken recipe but I'm not brave enough to make it. I'd love to try it though if someone else makes it!

(4)
GailS,
November 14, 2010 9:12 PM

Answer to Kosher Ingredient

I'm not sure if the Imagine chicken broth is pareve, but Imagine makes a pareve veggie broth. Trader Joe's. makes one as well. It works well in recipes and is cheaper than Imagine.

(3)
Anonymous,
November 14, 2010 7:27 PM

Imagine no chicken chicken soup is a parve kosher product. It is a wonderful ingredient to add to your recipes

(2)
Debby Smith,
November 14, 2010 6:38 PM

SECRET INGREDIENTS CAN BE FATAL

Please be aware that your secret ingredient-- peanut butter-- has led to the tragic deaths of people who had a severe peanut allergy and never suspected that peanut butter would be in their chili and/or chicken. Before serving this delightful dish make sure you inform those eating of the ingredient. Even the vapors can produce a reaction in highly allergic people.

(1)
Leslie,
November 14, 2010 5:07 PM

Kosher Ingredient

I noticed that you use Imagine Chicken Broth in your recipe for Morroccan Couscous Soup. I've been looking for a boxed kosher soup - is Imagine a Kosher paerve product?

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I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!